OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been declared the winner of her race in Georgia. Greene defeated Democrat challenger Marcus Flowers for the state’s 14th Congressional district.
Flowers raised over $15 million — more than any congressional candidate across the entire country — to defeat Greene, but did not come close to defeating Greene.
GEORGIA.🚨
This just in: Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R) wins re-election. #GA14
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 9, 2022
BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-inc) defeats Marcus Flowers (D) in Georgia's 14th Congressional district – @DecisionDeskHQ pic.twitter.com/907usErmpO
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) November 9, 2022
BREAKING: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wins re-election.
— Addison Smith (@AddisonSmithOAN) November 9, 2022
Greene made some noise last week when she spoke to a New York Times reporter.
New York Times Magazine writer Robert Draper appeared on MSNBC on Saturday and said that the firebrand representative has said to him that she may be on the ticket with former President Donald Trump in 2024, Mediaite reported.
Trump is said to be looking for a female to campaign with him if he decides he will attempt to become president again in 2024. A decision he has not made.
The writer said that it is “likely” that the former president has had the same conversations with other prominent Republican women.
“To be fair, Ali, it’s very likely that Trump has had this conversation with half a dozen other people too,” he said to host Ali Velshi.
But, he said, there is something she has that others may not have.
“What Greene possesses that Trump so craves is loyalty. She has always been there for Trump. She has always had his back and after his experience with his last running mate, Mike Pence, it’s clear that he’s going to prize loyalty above all else, so I wouldn’t count it out,” he said.
When Draper spoke to The Daily Beast’s “New Abnormal” podcast he said “that Greene had risen quickly in her first term in Congress by using the same tactics she honed as a right-wing social media influencer harassing Democratic staffers, and she could shoot to the second-highest office in government,” Raw Story reported.
“Republicans kind of wanted to kick her to the curb immediately,” said Draper, per the outlet. “But instead, she became a fundraising dynamo, came to have this huge social media influence, and ultimately came to be very influential within the party itself.”
Draper went on to say that Trump has been seriously discussing Greene as a potential VP since February, and though he has likely considered others as well, Greene has another quality that may propel her to the top, the report said.
“She has been unflaggingly loyal to Trump throughout,” Draper said. “What is Trump concerned about most of all in a VP after the Mike Pence experience? Loyalty. He knows that if he needs someone to fight for him to overturn a presidential election. He has every reason to expect that Greene would be by his side and would be his proximate warrior.”
Greene is not the only female Republican lawmaker under consideration by Trump, according to previous reports. Several recent reports seem focused on one name: New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, currently her party’s No. 3 ranking member.
In a September Foreign Policy story titled, “Elise Stefanik Is Most Likely to Succeed,” the authors detail, “A young woman once hailed as the future of the Republican Party embraces Trumpism to stay that way.”
“At 30 years old, Stefanik had been the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress in 2014. At a time when the party sought to reach a younger and more diverse pool of voters, she was hailed as the future of the Republican Party,” the report begins.
“Having hitched her cart firmly to Trump, Stefanik looks to have as bright a future within the Republican Party as when she was first elected to Congress eight years ago. She endorsed his still hypothetical candidacy for 2024—and has already been tipped as a potential running mate,” the story notes.
“While the former president and his progeny have repeatedly hinted that a third run for the White House may be in the works, some longtime conservative observers see the beginnings of a post-Trump future in the strategies of rising stars such as DeSantis, the Florida governor, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Both DeSantis and Youngkin have toed a careful line, neither embracing the former president nor the suicide vest of never-Trumpism,” it adds.
